I won’t use our own numbers to gauge the forging industry’s affinity for Web-based information sharing and gathering, but I will interpret the following as very good news:
The American Iron and Steel Institute has launched the Bar Steel Fatigue blog, extending the service of its Bar Steel Fatigue database into an online tool for automotive engineers seeking innovations and information on fatigue.
"Now in its 10th year, the Bar Steel Fatigue Database is accessed regularly by automotive engineers, as the information and technologies are constantly evolving, providing additional time and cost efficiencies," states David Anderson, director of AISI's Long Products Market Development Group. "The blog will take this powerful tool to the next level, as it creates new opportunities for interactive collaboration with fatigue and industry experts."
The blog administrator is Dr. Thomas Oakwood, one of the developers of the Bar Steel Fatigue Database. He is a metallurgical engineer with over 40 years of industrial experience in steel and related industries.
Engineers involved in steelmaking and ground-vehicle design are welcome participate in the blog, as are supplier design engineers, powertrain/chassis engineers, materials engineers, application engineers and FEA techicians, as well as users of the Bar Steel Fatigue Database and visitors to the AISI Automotive Web site.
Some of the topics open for discussion will be comparisons of fatigue properties of high-carbon steels for various processing cycles, and the fatigue properties of medium-carbon steels in the normalized, quenched and tempered conditions.